Halo: Target Earth
by Robert James
Summary: The covenant have made it to earth, and MC is ready to defend the human race no matter at what cost. Takes place after First Strike and before Halo 2. Please Review.
1. Happy Landings

Chapter 1: Happy Landings

0120 hours, October 20 2552 (Military Calendar)/ Skies above Toronto: Ground Zero, Earth.

A grey aircraft soared above the smoking city. The Pelican transport kept a safe altitude above the war torn metropolis since the city was crawling with the enemy, the Covenant. From above the pilot could see the green glow of plasma bolts and the red tracer rounds streaking through the streets like a deadly light show.

"This Echo 56 to central command, requesting permission to land, over." The pilot of the Pelican said through his com link. The Pelican patrolled the city diligently while waiting for a response from central command.

"That's a negative, Echo 56. We are under heavy fire in the east sector and the rest of the city is under cove controlled, it isn't worth it, over." A voice over the radio responded. The pilot looked back into his Pelican's troop bay. Seven Marines, armed with an assortment of weapons, sat in the seats lining the wall. One figure, however, stood near the opened back, looking down upon the city. This man, though he had been augmented to the point where one would say he was more machine then human, wore green MJOLNIR armor which could withstand intense fire. He had greater reflexes then any normal human in existence. He had the eyes of the hawk and he could hear a pin drop in the harshest conditions such as a sandstorm. He was Master Chief.

"Sir?" The Pelican pilot asked Master Chief, "We can't land, what should we do?

"We land, Sergeant Connor, we land." Master Chief replied.

"No offense Chief, but Covenant Anti-Air defenses will rip this bird to pieces." A female voice said over Master Chief's com channel.

"Cortana, if we can't reinforce the General's troops, we'll lose the city." Master Chief responded to Cortana. Cortana was the AI construct aboard the _Pillar of Autumn_, but now she joined with Chief via his suit's architecture which allowed her to be transported with him. She had proved very useful during battle on Halo, accessing the Covenant battle net, hacking into Halo's control room, and had her hand in saving the galaxy from the Flood. Without her, Chief may have been stuck on Halo or worse he could have activated Halo's final weapon.

"Let me access the Covenant battle net," she said, "Hmm, it seems that they're defending that ship over there, I'll mark it with a nav point."

On Chief's HUD display, a small arrow marked the location of a ship as well as the distance from him to the ship. At that moment they were three kilometers away and that distance was increasing with every second that past. Chief peered out the Pelican; he could see the massive tear drop shaped cruiser in the distance. Great plumes of black smoke bled from the ship where it had been hit by the powerful orbital MAC guns.

"It seems that the ship, the _Righteous Wrath_, had been carrying a team to establish a base of operations here, but after being shot down; they changed their mission to their regular tactics." Cortana announced, "According the information at hand, the covenant dropped another group with same mission near New York City, but it seems that there is no information on that team on the battle net."

"So what should we do, Cortana?" The pilot asked.

"I suggest getting out of here, but those men need are help," replied Cortana, "We need to hot drop Chief into battle. Though we don't have parachutes, his shields will take most of the damage."

"Most?" Chief asked suspiciously.

"Well uh, let's say..." She answered.

"Never mind." He interrupted.

"Sir, I can get you in near our forces' rear flank." The pilot told Master Chief. The Pelican increased its speed to get to the battle. Below them, Shade plasma turrets and Wraith tanks began to fire at them, but the Pelican's altitude kept the soldiers safe from the anti-aircraft fire. As they got closer to the battle, the air became thick with smoke, and explosions could be heard from every direction. As the Pelican rounded around a building the troops and Master Chief could see the Covenant and Human forces firing upon each other, hundreds of human and covenant bodies strewed like leaves in October and several Scorpion Tanks protecting the Humans' rear flank. The Pelican got to the back of the battle and began to land.

"Okay Marines, go go go!" shouted the pilot as the Marines and Master Chief jumped out the Pelican and rushed to the front line. Master Chief looked up as the Pelican took off after dropping them off. As the Pelican climbed to a safe height, it was hit by a plasma cannon blast. A twisted flaming ball of metal fell to earth, but Master Chief didn't think twice about it. He had seen so much death and destruction through out this damn war that it didn't really matter any more. Chief loaded his battle rifle and ran to the front lines.

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, or have any affiliation with Microsoft or Bungie. I am just using their characters for my story.


	2. God's Very Own AntiSon of a Bitch Machin...

Chapter 2: God's very own Anti-son of a Bitch Machine

0125 hours, October 20 2552 (Military Calendar)/ Western Sector, Toronto, Earth

Master Chief raced to the front lines, through a column of Scorpion tanks and a MASH unit. He came up to a wall of sand bags, about three feet high and that stretched from the ruins of a department store and the remains of a Scorpion tank. Beyond the sandbags, tons of bodies, Covenant and Human alike, that covered the road like litter as well as destroyed vehicles and sandbags, which were part of another defensive wall. Two Warthog reconnaissance vehicles stood sentry behind the sandbag defense, ripping encroaching enemies to shreds with their lethal tri-barrel machine gun turret in the back. Chief crouched down to protect his head from plasma fire as he looked for the general.

"Master Chief! Get over here!" Shouted someone to Chief's left. Chief looked over his shoulder, it was the general. Master Chief rushed over to him, while still ducking down to avoid enemy fire.

"General Weston." He said as he saluted the general.

"It's good to see you, Chief, we need your help." Replied the general, holding his right arm to stop blood loss. He had been hit by a needler round, the Chief believed, or else his arm would have been burned if he had been hit by a plasma shot. In his left arm he held the standard UNSC issue battle rifle. Suddenly a large explosion ripped through the sandbags, and then nothing. The marines just stood there, guns up and their eyes on the hole in the defensive wall. A few seconds past, though it seemed to be minutes to the marines, then hundreds of orange and red armored Grunts rushed through the hole in the wall like water bursting through dam, shooting their plasma pistols wildly into the air. The marines opened up with all the fire power they could muster, slaughtering the little aliens like cattle. Then the flood of aliens stopped. The marines looked around the battle field and began cheering.

"Not so big now, mother fuckers" said one of the soldiers firing into the pile of grunts.

"Enough of that, marine." The general interrupted.

"But sir, we kicked their asses to the curb." Shouted another one of the marines. Master Chief's motion tracker, however, show five red dots surrounding them.

"General, we are not out the woods yet." Cortana informed them.

"Come on, lady, we beat the shit out of these guys!" shouted a Marine. He looked around to see that all the troops were just looking toward him with horrified expressions plastered on their faces as a faint buzzing sound filled the air.

"Come on, all I said was..." He said as a plasma sword was lunged into his back and it pertruded through his chest. The marine began to choke up blood as the golden elite laughed at him and with one swing of his sword; the elite threw the dead soldier down the street. Master Chief looked around to see that they were surrounded by four other plasma sword wielding Elites. The aliens snarled at the marines and Master Chief, who had the guns armed and aimed at the warrior aliens. A roar, however, broke up the silence of the moment, but it wasn't made by any creature, it was made from an aircraft. Above Master Chief, three Longsword fighters soared through the sky towards the large force of Covenant vehicles and artillery cannons southwest of the Chief's position. As they drew closer, Covenant anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky like fireworks on the Forth of July. The fighters were too high, so the plasma dissipated without hitting their mark. The Longswords however could hit their targets, dropping 2000 lb bombs on Covenant positions a mile away from Chief's, but the ground shook as a massive explosion bloomed like a fiery flower from hell, killing the Covenant and destroying their artillery. The Elites continued to look at the fighter aircraft, completely forgetting about the humans.

"Now men, Fire!" Cortana shouted to the troops. On her order the marines and Chief slaughtered the unsuspecting Elites; their dark purplish blue blood stained the cracked asphalt of the street. Master Chief walked up to one, still clinging to life and took its plasma sword, and with one swipe, the elite's head flopped off and rolled a few feet down the street.

"Hoo rah!" the marines cheered, hoisting their weapons into the air. It was very rare for marines, or anything, to get out alive when assaulted by plasma sword wielding golden or commander rank elites.

"I'll call for evac." Cortana told them.

"Thank Chief and Cortana, without you, our asses would be grunt food." The general said, patting Chief on the back.

"This Fire Team Charlie to base command requesting evac, over." Cortana raised the command center over the radio.

"That's a negative Charlie Team; all Pelican transports are either destroyed or somewhere else, over."

"How long till we can get evac?"

"Cortana, we can't evac your group, a covenant cruiser is descending upon Toronto, its too dangerous for our aircraft. They'd be blown away. You'll have to find another way out, sorry. Base Command out.

"Well general, what should we do?" Asked a marine meekly, "I don't want to be plasma fodder."

"You heard base command; we'll find our own way out." Weston informed them.

"General, how do you propose that we do that?" Cortana asked of him. He didn't respond, but he pointed out a Warthog Transport vehicle.

"Saddle up, marines; we are going to drive through the belly of beast." He announced. The marines and Master Chief took their seats in the back, while the general took the driver's seat, and he put the pedal to the metal and they were off.


	3. Highway Through Hell

Chapter 3: Highway through Hell

0134 hours, October 20 2552 (Military Calendar)/Western Sector, Toronto, Earth

The Warthog Transport vehicle raced through the streets of the once vibrant city of Toronto. What once was the residential district was now under a fallen Covenant cruiser, the _Righteous Wrath_. Master Chief looked outside of the transport to see Covenant troops patrolling the streets, looking for any human survivors to slaughter. As the Warthog drove passed these streets, Chief could briefly hear the squeaks and the chatter of grunts alarmed by the speeding vehicle, but other then a badly aimed plasma bolt, they encountered no problems.

"Chief, look up." Cortana alerted him. Master Chief peered up to a Covenant Cruiser parting the clouds and descending upon the city. On its starboard side, a large cloud of smoke rose from its wound.

"It seems the MAC guns are still operating, or they'd probably have glassed us." Noted one of the marines. Chief, however, knew the truth; there was something on Earth that they needed to find. It had to do with Forerunners, the builders of Halo, but this was not the time to dwell on these issues. Master Chief reloaded his battle rifle, ready for anything might happen.

"Chief, what is with these bastards? They are just so blindly aggressive?" asked one of the marines, but before Master Chief could answer him, a plasma mortar crashed into the ground just ahead of them. Weston swerved to dodge it, nearly flipping the vehicle. The marines and Master Chief luckily were strapped in, or there would have been a few more bodies covering the road.

"This is Base Command to any UNSC forces in the Western Sector, come in." Base Command called over the com channels.

"This is Charlie Team, what is going on, over." The General relayed back as the Warthog raced through the streets.

"We have one available Pelican Transport and one Sea Eagle Gunship coming into the city for one last pick up, I have sent Cortana coordinates to LZ, over.

"Roger that Base Command, Charlie Team over and out." Cortana said, "Chief, I am going to set up a nav point to guide us to the LZ."

A small arrow appeared on the Spartan's HUD with a decreasing distance next to it. At that moment Charlie team was one kilometer from the landing zone. Chief however was worried about the plasma attacks that they narrowly escaped. Most of the time the elite piloting the Wrath would need to see you in front of him to fire at you. Then it hit him. Master Chief picked up a sniper rifle from the supplies on board the transport and he began to comb the roof tops for anything, and sure enough, the tanks had a spotter. It was one of the Elites, in its blue armor, were relaying to the tanks the position of the Warthog. Chief had to put a stop to this, so as the Elite peered down looking for the vehicle Master Chief got the alien within the target receptacle of the scope and he pulled the trigger. The Elite looked towards the area where the sound of the shot was emitted from, but it was too late. The anti-material round went right between the eyes, cracking its energy shield and its armor. The dead alien's body wobbled around before falling down and off the fifteen story building. A few minutes passed until they were within seventy five meters of the landing zone and the Warthog was driving past an intersection when they saw a grunt, but this grunt was glowing blue and was running right at them.

"Shit! Get out! It's a suicide bomber!" The general screamed as he hit the emergency brake. The fast stop threw the marines and Master Chief who had unbuckled themselves from the seats in anticipation of getting to LZ fast. The Grunt waddled faster and faster towards the stopped Warthog. The troops ran out and scattered as the little alien detonated. A large explosion picked up the warthog's smoldering metal corpse and threw it down the street. As the smoke settled, Master Chief could see two dead marines lying on the cold asphalt, bleeding from several different places. A tell tale wound that told the Chief these two died from flying shrapnel.

"General where are you?" Cortana called out. Master Chief looked around but he couldn't find any of the marines. Then the eerie silence of the dead city was broken by sporadic gunfire and the howls of grunts being slaughtered. The Chief ran towards the battle and as he turned a corner he could see the surviving marines battling the large Covenant advancement. Five marines, a general, and a Spartan were all that remain to face hundreds of Grunts, Jackals and Elites. They were moving a set pattern; the Jackals protected the front, side and rear flanks of the column, this group only took up one row in the front, the back and each of the sides. The inside of this group were Elites armed with their Carbine rifles and plasma grenade throwing Grunts. The Elites could snipe the human forces without worrying about being hit by enemy fire. This reminded Chief about the Roman Army he had learned about during his training, many years ago. The column had stop moving and began using suppression fire tactic against the human forces that were hiding behind the metal corpses of vehicles and large piles of rubble. Master Chief looked around, for he knew the battle rifle would be able to take on all these aliens. As he turned to his left, he saw what he needed, a Jackhammer rocket launcher or known to the troops as the Spanker, because of the acronym on its side that read SPNKR. He picked up the rocket launcher and aimed for the middle of the column but something caught his eye. On the opposite corner hiding behind the building, he could make out a shivering small mass hiding in the shadows. At first he thought it was a grunt, but if it was it would have tried to attack the marines. Then he realized that it wasn't an enemy, it was a child.


End file.
